New Fish Disappearing-- Being Eaten?

[jenduck]

We have a 55 gallon community tank that has 2 large plecos, 1 upsidedown catfish, 2 cory cats, 2 blackfin tetras, 2 platys, and a couple of smaller tetras that I can't remember the name of. We've had these particular fish for a while and haven't added any new ones lately as we moved in May and didn't add any knowing that we would have to move the tank. So, this weekend we decided to add 2 red swordtails and 5 neon tetras. The next morning all 5 tetras were gone-- no sign of them anywhere. Our first thought is that the neons were too small and were looked at as "snacks" for another fish. Our daughter was absolutely devestated as the "blue fish" are her favorite. So, we went back to the store and bought 2 larger guppies. They were gone this morning!! Any ideas as to which fish could be the cause? We watched the tank throughout the day and the blackfin tetra seemed a little territorial at first and then settled down. Whatever happens seems to happen at night after the tank lights go out.

Would love some thoughts on this. Will we ever be able to add the neons to our tank? We've had them in the past and didn't seem to have any trouble, although over time they did seem to decrease in numbers.

Thanks!

Jen

 

[Anguilla82]

my guess would be the upside down catfish. depending on the size i imagine it would see the tetras as lunch. mind you, 5 in a night is quite alot. how big is the catfish? is it a true upside down catfish (don't get very big) or one of the large synodontis species (such as feather-fin catfish) commonly sold as upside downs.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

if the new fish died because they couldn't cope with your water parameters or because they didn't acclimitise properly they could easily have been eaten by the larger fish overnight.

what are your water stats for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?

what is your maintenance routine, how often do you do water changes, gravel cleaning etc?

 

[jenduck]

my guess would be the upside down catfish. depending on the size i imagine it would see the tetras as lunch. mind you, 5 in a night is quite alot. how big is the catfish? is it a true upside down catfish (don't get very big) or one of the large synodontis species (such as feather-fin catfish) commonly sold as upside downs.

That's kind of what we were thinking. We don't see it very often if at all-- it likes to stay up behind a big piece of drift wood. As the the actual species--- bought it as an "upside down" so I don't know. Did some looking on the internet but I can't really tell the difference. I just scared him out of his hiding spot and my goodness he has gotten big-- probably almost 6 inches from tip to tip-- I'm thinking that is big so we probably have the bigger species? It's solid black and it's "whiskers" are quite long.

Probably nothing we can do except buy bigger fish-- or will they be picked on, too?

Thanks for the help-- my daughter appreciates it

Jen

 

[jenduck]

my guess would be the upside down catfish. depending on the size i imagine it would see the tetras as lunch. mind you, 5 in a night is quite alot. how big is the catfish? is it a true upside down catfish (don't get very big) or one of the large synodontis species (such as feather-fin catfish) commonly sold as upside downs.

Just an update--- think it's an Asian Upsidedown Catfish-- looks like they can be pretty mean and will eat anything that is small. Wonderful.